for sandy, that's part of the discretionary spending. >> and part of this is a snowball, right, so the cuts take place, they have their effect but they dampen consumer confidence. >> that's right. >> people are less confident, they spend less and hurts the economy more. >> if you look at what happened last year with the debt wrangling in august of 2011, consumer confidence dipped 30% and that was without the worry over tax hikes. >> even if it's not clear exactly what's going to happen in the fiscal cliff i'm hearing from retailers, they're saying we're feeling this. holiday sales were dampened by it, what happened next year as far as business hiring could be dampened as well. >> retail stocks are down. the stock market has been jittery and business is extremely worried. >> any silver lining at all? some good news? >> one silver lining if we go over the cliff it's possible that will create a political reset that will change the terms of debate and really focus things and get a deal done fingers crossed. >> part of that deal also another thing i hear from businesses
